PD 9.5: Star Spirit
PD 9.5: Star Spirit is the ninth episode of a meta complementary project for Project Deca. The following events are completely non-canon to the series and should be treated as such. Episode Attai, Mig, Theo, and Nova all stood outside the wreckage of the Plumber base, each holding an unusually thick script. "Jeez, this episode was a drag." Attai grumbled, flipping through his script. "The plot was convoluted and half of it was just exposition." "That's just the nature of Star Spirit as a series, honestly." Theo said. "The series goes off in too many directions with too many characters for its own good." "Then why not just make up a new version of the series for the tribute like every other episode?" Attai huffed. "Did you see how Star Spirit ended originally?" Nova asked. "It wasn't just bad, it was downright uncomfortable." "Fair enough, I guess." Attai grunted. "What I want to know is why he's here." Theo jabbed a thumb at Mig. "Like...who is he?" "I'm the main protagonist of Mig X, the series Terox hails from." Mig explained. "If you've read Mig X, you know that the rivalry between Terox and I is fairly important, so bringing it into Project Deca felt more satisfying from a narrative standpoint." "It also helps that C*T already made the art for all of your aliens a while ago, so bringing you in didn't mean too much extra work." Attai tsked. "Well, that too." "So, about the ending, then." Theo interjected. "What does everything being erased mean for the future of Tech 10 in general?" "It's not that everything was erased, it's that the story of Star Spirit specifically was reset." Attai sighed. "The new version of the story is meant to match the Chou Imagination Unlimited art project C*T started in 2018." "Art project?" Nova asked. "So...is it not actually being written?" "Writing it in full was never the plan, although certain bits of lore might appear in character pages made around the art." Attai replied. "You can already see what that would look like on the Theodore Logical (Imaginate) page." "Well, that's a bit of a cop-out, isn't it?" Theo said. "Just ending your story by turning it into a new story that's not actually going to be told?" "Depends on how it's used." Attai shrugged. "If it doesn't tie everything up in a satisfactory manner and it's just used arbitrarily (Animorphs goddammit K.A. Applegate), then yeah, but in cases where it serves a solid narrative purpose, it can be a really good end to a story (I still cry over the Ryuki finale goddammit}." "So where does Star Spirit fall on that scale?" Nova tilted her head. "If you want a real answer, it depends on the reader's interpretation, but if you want a C*T answer, it falls on the shit end of the scale for self-deprecation reasons." "Isn't the overuse of self-deprecation a cop-out in and of itself since it indicates the writer is both unsure of their work and too insecure to let their audience interpret the actual value of the work on their own?" Mig pointed out. "Turn to the second page of your script's index notes." Attai replied. Mig flipped to the indicated portion of his script, where more or less his exact question was placed into the text. A large scrawl of red Sharpie underneath it simply read 'SHUT UP' followed by an angry crying emoji. "Oh." "Clearly we're working with a genius scriptwriter here." Attai rolled his eyes. "Any other questions?" "Oh, I have one!" Nova raised her arm. "Why weren't Hybrider designs for Theo, Sybil, and Pyros included in the original release of our episode?" "Not all the designs could be finished before the episode premiered, and some art simply had to be prioritized over others." Attai explained. "Boring answer, but I guess it makes sense." Nova nodded. "Say, all the Hybriders have different names, right? What are Sybil and Pyros's Hybrider names? Or Theo for that matter?" "Theo's in the same camp as me where it's debatable if our incomplete armor counts as a full Hybrider form." Attai flipped through his script. "If you were to assign us Hybrider names, I'd probably be the Gesamt Hybrider, and Theo would be the Delta Hybrider." "Delta Hybrider?" Mig looked confused. "It's not elaborated on in the tribute episode for the sake of cutting down on the ridiculous amounts of exposition there already, but Theo is half-Delta Human." Attai said. "Delta what now?" "Delta Humans are an Earth-83 thing." Attai grunted. "They're basically the direct predecessors of modern humans and had adaptation abilities before getting nerfed by the Galvans." "There's a lot more to it than that." Theo interjected. "I'm well aware, but I'd prefer to get the idea across in less than a year." Attai snapped. "Okay, okay, whatever, what about Sybil and Pyros?" Nova snapped her fingers to get their attention. "Going by the naming scheme, Sybil would be the Gravi Hybrider because she gets her alien powers from Gravitar's species." Attai tsked. "Pyros would be the Blitz Hybrider since he gets his powers from Kugelblitz's species." "Okay, neat." "If that's everything, I'm going to go ahead and wrap this up." Attai said. "One more thing." Theo stated. "Why did the reset universe follow the Imaginate art project instead of the ReVise project the original ending to Star Spirit foreshadowed?" "Because the ReVise project was cancelled and replaced with Imaginate." Attai sighed. "ReVise was going to be more of the same tone as the Star Spirit finale; dark, miserable, and way too edgy." "So what changed C*T's mind towards his approach to the rework?" Nova asked. "A few things contributed, but the main thing..." Attai paused. "...You ever heard of ToQger?" "Uh...no?" "Good, that means C*T can maintain at least some dignity here." Attai coughed. "Anything else?" "I think we're good." Mig said. "Alright then, that's it for today." Attai nonchalantly tossed his script over his shoulder. "See you next month." TO BE CONTINUED.